Turning Sideways
by Azremodehar
Summary: New chapter up! My second (so far) successful crossover. RK/WoT, this time. ^^;; Ehh... Spoilers for both series, eventually...
1. A Hole in the Pattern

Kenshin absently tapped the hilt of his recently acquired sakabatou. He had a new life now - no more killing, no more being the Hitokiri Battousai. Hopefully, he would be able to make amends for all the lives he had taken during his career as 'the strongest', the deadliest assassin in the Ishinshishi.   
  
The young former assassin walked down through the forest on an obscure game trail, aware of his surroundings, but not really paying attention to them. It was just this state of inattention that caused him to trip.   
  
"Ah!" he exclaimed, bracing himself to hit the ground. But the expected impact never came, and as the confused swordsman fell through dark/light empty space, he cried  
out, "Ororororororooooooo.........!!" Then, just as strangely, he was falling through the air. The analytical part of his mind noted three things - one, that the air was *much* too hot and dry for Nihon at any time of the year, two, that the ground was rushing up to him at an alarming rate, and three, that there were a large number of extremely odd looking people below him on that self-same ground.   
  
Swiftly, he flipped around, pointing his feet to the ground. It wouldn't do much good at this speed, but it was better than landing head first. Keeping his left hand on his sakabatou, Kenshin held his right arm out for balance. No sooner than he had corrected his posture, than he was landing, left foot first, on the hard dry ground. The young swordsman wobbled slightly from the impact, but quickly regained his balance, only to find several hundred spears pointed right at him.   
  
"Ano..." he said, putting out his best 'I'm-harmless-and-innocent' aura. He could tell   
that all the people pointing spears at him were skilled, experienced fighters, and, as good as he was, there was no way he could defeat them all, even if he was willing to kill them. One of the people - male, although it was tricky to tell, the way they were dressed, with black veils covering their faces - said something in a language Kenshin didn't recognise.   
  
"I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're saying," Kenshin said sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders in the universal sign of 'I don't know'. The spear weilder made several more attempts to communicate something to Kenshin, and he was just as clueless as before. Then, after the fifth time, for some reason, a few of the words made sense. He cocked his head slightly to one side, and said, "I think I almost..." Suddenly, his skull felt like it was about to explode. He grasped it in pain, let out a silent gasp, and promptly passed out.   
  
**********  
  
Rand stared suspiciously at the strange boy who had - literally - fallen out of the sky. Rhuarc had said that the boy hadn't understood a word they said. And they in turn hadn't understood a word that he had said. None of which bothered Rand *that* much, he was ta'veren, after all, and was beginning to get used to odd things happening around him. The thing that bothered him was the fact that the boy had fallen *hundreds* of feet out of the sky, and yet somehow managed to land on his feet, unharmed. No human being was capable of doing that, not without channeling, at any rate, but Rand would have sensed it if the boy had been channeling.   
  
Rand held up the hand holding the boy's sword. It was an odd shape - the blade was curved, and single edged, like Tam's had been, but the hilt was oval, and wrapped in an odd pattern, with only a small, round guard on it. However, that wasn't really overly strange. It was the blade itself that was strange. At first glance, yes, it did look like one of those ancient One Power forged blades, but only at that. When you looked for more than a second, it was plain that this blade was far more out of the ordinary. The edges were reversed. Where the cutting edge should be, the blade was blunt, and it was sharpened on the back, where it should be blunt. /How did anyone ever manage to forge a sword like this? And why would they?/   
  
"Nnn... Doko...?" the boy stirred on the pallet he had been placed on, and everyone in the tent instantly focused their attention on him, hands hovering near various weapons. One of the boy's eyes opened slowly, and then both of his eyes snapped open, and he jumped up, hand reaching for the sword that was no longer at his side. "Oro?" he said. His eyes widened comically. The boy glanced around rapidly, repeating the 'oro' again and again. Then his eyes lighted on the sword in Rand's hands.   
  
"My sword!" he said with a slightly forlorn tone in his voice. Rand stared. Everyone in the room stared. The boy, looking just as shocked, raised a hand to his lips. "This language... isn't Nihongo..." he murmured. The boy glanced around again, his eyes narrowing slightly as his gaze passed over Lan and Rhuarc, and then stared.   
  
**********   
  
In spite of his confusion, Kenshin stared. He couldn't help himself. He had never seen anyone else with red hair before, and now more than half the people in the room had red hair. While one half of his mind was methodically analysing the room and it's occupants, the other half was a confused mess.   
  
"Oro?" he said again, quietly.   
  
"Who are you?" the man holding Kenshin's sakabatou said suspiciously. Kenshin blinked, then narrowed his eyes.   
  
"Kenshin. Himura Kenshin," he said. "Who are you? And..." he glanced around again. "What is this place? And how am I speaking your tongue?" After a moment he added, almost wistfully, "Can I have my sword back?"   
  
"I am Rand al'Thor," the man with Kenshin's sword said. "The Dragon Reborn." The man said it as if Kenshin should recognise the title, but the young former assassin just gave out yet another confused look.   
  
"I'm very sorry," he said after a moment. "But what is the Dragon Reborn?" A small woman, the first person he had seen so far who was shorter than him, pushed to the front of the group in front of him.   
  
"Excuse me," she said, a focused expression on her face. "But did you just say 'what is the Dragon Reborn'?" Kenshin nodded. The lady gave him a deep, penetrating look, that said plain as day that she was analysing every aspect of the object of her scrutiny. There was something about her that made Kenshin very wary.   
  
"If the lady does not mind my asking, what is your name?" Kenshin asked cautiously.   
  
"Moiraine Aes Sedai," the lady replied. Kenshin wasn't sure, but part of that had sounded like a title. "You may address me as Aes Sedai." Kenshin nodded, but not to her. Then he thought of something.   
  
"I'm not in Nihon anymore, am I Moiraine-san?" he asked sadly. Moiraine started slightly, and then shook her head.   
  
"I have never heard of any place called 'Nihon'," the lady said.  
  
"Sou ka," Kenshin said softly, casting his eyes down. "I suppose, in some manner, it is for the better..."   
  
"What do you mean by that?" Rand said, before Moiraine could reply. The former Hitokiri shook his head.   
  
"It's nothing," he replied, then paused. "No, it's not nothing," he corrected himself. "But you have no way of understanding."   
  
"Why not?" Rand asked, voice noticable tinged with arrogance. Kenshin felt a surge of irritation, and decided to do something a little brash. Utilising the god-speed of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, he flashed over to the taller man, and, in the time it took for the room to gasp, had snatched his sword, and returned to his previous position. Sticking the sakabatou into his obi, he turned the narrow, cold eyes on the Hitokiri on Rand. He felt more than saw nearly everyone in the room take an involuntary step back. Greater than half of them had also drawn their weapons, and those that hadn't had their hands on them. Kenshin sighed, and allowed his eyes to return to the wide, more clear state that he was beginning to become accoustomed to.   
  
"As I said, you have no way of understanding," he stated softly, and headed toward the doorflap of the tent. All of a sudden, he found his way blocked by a tall man swathed in a strange cloak that seemed to blend into it's surroundings. Kenshin had made note of him earlier as an obviously skilled warrior, and potential threat. He narrowed his eyes, and met the man's steady gaze with one just as implacable.  
  
"And where do you think you're going?" the man asked in a flat voice  
  
"I am leaving," Kenshin said in an equally flat voice. "I must continue my journey. Also, I have no wish to be a burden on your people." For a long moment, he continued to exchange stares with the man. Then, the other nodded in understanding, and stood aside, to let Kenshin pass. "Arigatou," Kenshin said as he walked past the man, and out of the tent.   
  
**********  
  
It was Rand's turn to stare, as Lan confronted the red-haired boy, and then just let him pass. /Why would he do that?/ Rand wondered.   
  
"Lan," Moiraine began sternly. Lan shook his head.   
  
"I've seen eyes like that before," he said. Rand opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Lan said, "He's right, sheepherder. You have no way of understanding." The Warder paused. "Yet." Then he turned, and left the tent as well. Moiraine followed him.  
  
"Lan," she said. "That... person is dangerous. You should not have let him just leave like that."   
  
"I couldn't have stopped him," Lan said. Moiraine sniffed. "He has the eyes of one who has too much death." Lan paused. "Caused too much death." Moiraine had just opened her mouth to reply, when a shout came from outside the tent. Lan, along with Moiraine, Rand, and several others quickly went outside to what the commotion was. Outside, no more than a dozen feet from the tentflap, Kenshin was standing, surrounded by Far Dareis Mai.   
  
Lan narrowed his eyes at the sight of Kenshin's stance. It wasn't like anything he had seen before. The boy had his legs spread widely, and his knees were bent deeply. His upper body was turned at an angle, with his left hand on the sheath of his sword, and the other hovering no more than an inch above the hilt.   
  
"This prisoner was trying to escape," said one of the Maidens, not removing her eyes from the potential target in front of her.   
  
"I was not escaping," Kenshin said, without shifting his position an inch. "I was merely leaving. I don't wish to trouble you with my presence." He paused for a minute, then turned one eye back to Lan. "You knew that I would not be able to leave, didn't you?" he asked. The Warder nodded. "What do you want?" Kenshin asked. Rand gestured.   
  
"Come back into the tent," he said, reentering it himself. All those who had left when they heard the yell followed him. After a moment, Kenshin sighed, relaxed his stance, and did the same.  
  
"What land are you from, that you have never heard of the Dragon Reborn?" Moiraine said after they were all seated again, and properly introduced. The red-headed boy sighed.   
  
"I already told you," he said, with a hint of irritation in his voice. "Nihon. What land is this? I've never seen such desert..."   
  
"The Aiel Waste," said Lan. "They call it the Three-fold Land."   
  
"I've never heard of it."   
  
"What about Cairhien? Or Tear? Or Andor?" Rand interjected. Kenshin shook his head. "How about Tar Valon?" he added after a short interval. Once again, Kenshin indicated a negative.   
  
"I'm sorry, but I've never heard of any of those places," he said. Then he sighed. "I doubt that I will have heard of any of the places here... Just as I know you've never heard of Nihon, and doubt you've heard of Chuugoku, or Igirisu, or Amerika..." Rand and the others in the tent indicated that they had no knowledge of such lands.   
  
At that moment, as if by chance, Kenshin's eyes rested on backs of Rand's hands, where were what seemed to be the heads of dragons. He blinked.   
  
"Ano, excuse me, but are those dragons on the backs of your hands?" he said. The group looked at him, startled.   
  
"I thought you said you didn't know what a dragon was," Rand said suspiciously. Kenshin leveled him his best 'do you take me for an idiot?' look.   
  
"I said I didn't know what the 'Dragon Reborn' was. I never said I didn't know what a dragon is," he said. Lan and Moiraine exchanged a quick glance.   
  
"Does the name 'Lews Therin Telamon' mean anything to you?" Moiraine asked. Kenshin shook his head.   
  
"Are you even *from* this world?!" Rand burst out, in sudden irritation. Kenshin got a startled look on his face. His eyes got very big, and his mouth got very small. A very small 'oro' escaped his lips, and his shoulders slumped back.   
  
"Another world..." he said softly. "Aa... I suppose it makes sense..." A distant and forlorn look replaced surprise on Kenshin's face. A rather uncomfortable silence dragged out for several minutes. "If I'm going to be stuck here, then would you please tell me what's going on?" Several people exchanged glances, and then Rand nodded, and began explaining.   
  
Several hours later, after the situation was explained to Kenshin, another, more tense silence started. However, this one didn't draw out very long. Kenshin sighed, and stood up, his sakabatou making a soft clicking in it's saya, as he replaced it in his obi.   
  
"If this 'Dark One' really is all you say," he began. When several people had nodded, he continued, "The I will help you." Rand looked at him, shock evident in his expression.   
  
"Why?" he asked. Kenshin looked at Rand with hard eyes.   
  
"My reasons are my own," he said. /Perhaps if I can help save this world, I can be redeemed.../ After a minute, Rand nodded. "Then, perhaps you could tell those women who tried to kill me that I'm on your side?" Kenshin asked with a slightly nervous look on his face. Momentarily startled by the incongruity of Kenshin's attitude, Rand suddenly let out a short burst of laughter.   
  
"Sure, sure," he said, gesturing Kenshin to follow him back out the tent. As Kenshin passed Lan, he heard the other man say in a low voice,   
  
"You know, we need all the help we can get."   
  
************  
  
Kenshin walked alongside Rand's horse, the blistering midday sun shining down on them. Much to the surprise of his new companions, he was well able to keep up to the fierce pace set by the Aiel, with no apparent effort.   
  
"How are you able to keep up this pace?" Rand asked.   
  
"I know I don't look it, but I am very strong," Kenshin said. "Remember, I fell out of the sky."   
  
"Yes..." Rand replied. "I meant to ask you, how did you do that?" Kenshin shrugged.   
  
"I didn't do anything. I was just walking through the forest, heading away from Kyoto, when I took a step, and just..." Kenshin paused, searching for a suitable term. "Fell through a hole that hadn't been there before, and found myself falling out of your sky," he finished. Rand thought about that for a minute.   
  
/He just fell through a hole... a hole in the Pattern? Asmodean might know, I'll have to ask him later./ They traveled in silence for a while longer, then Kenshin slipped away, leaving Rand to his thoughts. The young red-head scanned the army of Aiel - because that's what it was - attempting to locate Lan. The Warder had indicated a desire to talk with Kenshin earlier, but there hadn't been any time.   
  
His eyes swiftly spotted Lan, however, he was deep in a discussion with Moiraine-san. Giving a mental shrug, his eyes continued to pass over the the people. His eyes finally settled on a young man who wore a broad-brimmed hat, and carried a naginata.   
  
/That must be Rand's friend,/ Kenshin thought. /He wasn't there yesterday, but Rand and Moiraine-san mentioned him several times. I think they said his name was 'Mat'./ Thinking that it might be a good idea to introduce himself, Kenshin turned silghtly, and made his way over to where the other young man was riding.   
  
"Hello," Kenshin said from beside Mat's horse. The young man practically jumped out of his saddle.   
  
"Blood and ashes!! You startled me!" he said, giving Kenshin an odd look. "Hey, you're that guy who caused all that fuss yesterday, aren't you?" he asked. Kenshin nodded.   
  
"Yes, I am," he said. "But don't worry, I don't channel," he continued with a smile. /At least I don't *think* I do./ Mat blushed slightly.   
  
"You picked up on that, huh?" he asked, his voice slightly tinged by embarrassment. "Well, I'm Mat, Mat Cauthon," he continued, regaining his composure.   
  
"Himura Kenshin," replied Kenshin. "I am pleased to meet you." He bowed slightly.   
  
"Nice too meet you too," Mat said. "But you don't bow to me. I'm not a lord or anything." Kenshin smiled.   
  
"It's just the custom where I come from," he said, laughing.   
  
"Where *do* you come from, then?" Mat asked.   
  
"A country called Nihon," Kenshin replied. "Probably in another world," he continued, when he saw Mat's look of nonrecognition at the name. "I don't know how I got here." Mat nodded. Strange things like this just seemed to keep on happening around Rand.   
  
"I suppose you've gotten mixed up in this mess too now," Mat said. Kenshin nodded.   
  
"Yes, it seems like I have." He shrugged. "There are worse things." Mat gave him a strange look. Worse things? Well, he supposed there were worse things, like being attacked by Trollocs and Darkfriends. Or having the interest of an Aes Sedai. Although given the way that Moiraine had been looking at the newcomer, he was in for some of that as well. Another thing occurred to him, and Mat unconsciously rubbed his neck.  
  
"Yeah," Mat agreed. "There are worse things. Unfortunately, most of them seem to come about because of this mess." Kenshin shrugged, and absently scratched the still-new scar on his cheek. Mat wondered where he had gotten it; Kenshin couldn't have been any older than he was himself. The red-head smiled up at Mat.   
  
"Not everything could be that bad, could it?" he asked. Mat thought about that for a minute, about everything that had happened to him so far because of his involvement with Rand. He shrugged.   
  
"I suppose it hasn't been all bad, but I've still been through more bad than good," he said. "I guess that's what happens when your best friend is the Dragon Reborn."   
  
"War is like that," Kenshin said. At that moment, he saw Lan look in his direction, and then start coming that way. "Perhaps we can talk some more later," he said to Mat. The young man nodded.   
  
"Sure," he replied. Kenshin nodded, and then walked over to meet the Warder. Lan Mandragoran was a curious man, Kenshin thought. He reminded the former assasssin of himself in some ways, and of his old enemy, Saitou Hajime. There was a hard edge about him that spoke of a man who had been through hell and back, numerous times, and of his own will.   
  
"I wanted to talk to you," the Warder said, falling into step beside Kenshin.   
  
"Aa," Kenshin replied. "What about?" Lan looked down at the shorter man. He wondered what had made this swordsman so jaded at such a young age. Lan himself had been much the same, but he was a rather extraordinary case, even among Borderlanders. Perhaps it had something to do with the strange crossed scar on his left cheek. But he was wise enough to realise that a scar like that on a man so obviously skilled in swordplay most likely had a painful story behind it; he would leave it alone for now.  
  
"For a beginning, where did you learn to fight?" he asked. Kenshin gave a small half-smile, tinged slightly with bitterness.   
  
"I learned from a great swordmaster. His name is Hiko Seijuurou," he said. "My speed comes from our school. There is none better." A slight bit of arrgance and pride showed through the young man's typical humility. "What of you? I can see that you are a man of great skill," Kenshin continued.   
  
"I too have studied with great swordmasters." Lan replied. "From the cradle, I was trained." Kenshin could hear the pain behind the Lan's flat tone. He knew didn't ask any more questions along that line; he had no wish to cause anymore suffering, even if it was only a memory, and none of his doing originally. They contined to speak; Lan learned a bit about the origin of Kenshin's special sword, and his vow to never again take a human life.   
  
"That could be a liability here," he pointed out. "There are Darkfriends who are completely irredeemable, to say nothing of the Forsaken." Kenshin nodded.   
  
"I know. I will wrestle with those demons when I come to them, and not before," he said, but he cntinued to consider Lan words in quiet for a while. He would not - *could* not - break his oath, and return to the ways of the Hitokiri, but if to do otherwise would save thousands of lives? Kenshin was not sure. He shook his head.   
  
"You do not know, do you?" Lan asked him. Kenshin sighed.   
  
"No, I do not. I honestly cannot know my actions until the moment it becomes necessary to do them," he said. "But my vow is important to me." The Warder nodded. He understood the importance of oaths, even the ones made only to the self. Perhaps especially those made to the self.   
  
"None of us will ask you to break your oath," he said. "Not unless absolutely necessary." Kenshin acknowledged Lan's words, and was grateful for the fact that the Warder had been honest with him. He was aware of what the situation he was in might call for. He just did not want to think on it for too long, or too hard. He gave a wry smile.   
  
"I suppose I just don't want to think about it," he said. Lan knew what he meant. Kenshin looked towards the horizon. The sun was starting to set, and it was getting darker out. The ever present heat began to ease off slightly.   
  
"We'll be stopping to camp soon," Lan said. Kenshin nodded. He then asked Lan if the other could provide some more detail of what was going on. Lan agreed, and spent the remainder of the time before the stopped bringing Kenshin fully up to speed with the current situation.  
  
That night, as he lay on the pallet that the Aiel had provided for him, Kenshin thought some more on his conversation with Lan. /I wish it wasn't so, but I'm afraid that as this situation intensifies I might just end up breaking my oath./ The thought was painful. /I can tell this whole thing is only beginning. How much worse will it become, I wonder./ He sat up, and pushed his hair out of his eyes. Just then, he wished for nothing so much as to be back in Nihon, wandering the familiar highways and trails through his beautiful homeland.   
  
But this world was in such turmoil, and it's people were suffering. It was to help the ordinary people, to ease their suffering and end injustice that he had joined the Ishinshishi in the first place. And now, if what he had been told was true, his own home would also be in danger from the Dark One. /'If the Dark One breaks free in one world, he breaks free in them all.' I must not allow that to happen; it would make all the sacrifice, all the war and strife pointless./ With a sigh, he lay back down. /There's no question about what I must do though. I have to help them./ 


	2. Moving Forward

The next morning dawned bright and hot. Kenshin easily fell back into the pace of the journey. Some of the Aiel around him still seemed surprised at his ability to keep up, but there were a few who gave him wry looks, and nodded in acknowledgement of his skill. Part of the way through the day, there was a bit of commotion near the front of the party. They had come across a caravan, apparently going the wrong way, and Rhuarc had stopped them before they went any further. They continued on, with the trader's caravan in tow, and Mat sporting a new broad-brimmed hat. As they walked, Kenshin talked with a few of the Aiel, in an attempt to become more familiar with their customs. Their code of ji'e'toh seemed to be even more complicated than the code that the samurai lived by.  
  
It was the late afternoon, and Kenshin had been speaking with Rand again, when Rhuarc announced that the place where he intended to stop - called Imre Stand - was close by.   
  
"Why are we stopping so early?" Rand asked. "There are hours more of daylight left." The red-haired girl, Aviendha, who was walking beside Rand's horse replied, telling him that the reason they were stopping there was water. Kenshin nodded.   
  
"In a climate like this, it would be best to stop beside water, even if it lengthens the journey somewhat," he said. Rhuarc did no more than raise his eyebrows slightly, but Aviendha looked at him in gape-mouthed surprise.   
  
"How would a wetlander like you know what is sense in the Three-Fold Land?" she demanded. Kenshin shrugged.   
  
"I have common semse," he said. "I have eyes in my head. Even though we do not have any place like this in my homeland, I have tasted this climate. It is not difficult to see what is sense." He paused, and looked at her askance. "Do you have so little common sense that you must be *told* what is sense in a particular place?" Aviendha pressed her lips together, and glared at him, until a look from Rhuarc set her to blushing. She turned and faced forward again. Rhuarc nodded.  
  
"Also, the wagons cannot go much further," he said. "I do not want to leave them behind. I cannot spare anyone, and Couladin can." Rand looked back at the wagons trundling along, guarded now by a group of Aiel.   
  
"No, you don't want to do that," he said, and laughed softly. Mat gave him and odd look, and Rand smiled back. Kenshin began drifting away, as Rand laughed again, bitterly this time, and Aviendha made another biting comment, and the man they called "Dragon" engaged in conversation with Rhuarc. The red-heaired swordsman stopped when he saw a pair of the Aiel women called "Maidens of the Spear" run up to Rand's group, and say something to Rhuarc. In spite of it's low timbre and clipped nature, Kenshin caught a few of the words, including "trouble". Kenshin watched as Rhuarc went off to rejoin the main body of his people, and returned to Rand's side in time to hear the end of Aviendha's explanation of what the "trouble" was likely to be. The prickling feeling of his danger sense danced across his back and arms. Unconsciously he put his left hand on his saya. Wondering where the feeling could be coming from, Kenshin looked around.   
  
Rand looked askance at Kenshin. He had seen how the young man had tensed slightly when he had grasped saidin. Even if he wasn't able to channel himself, it seemed that he at least had some ability to sense channeling in action. Kenshin listened to Rand and Aviendha's exchanges, and continued walking with them when the rest of the people went forward. After a little while, they arrived at Imre Stand. Rhuarc was the only Aiel plainly visible, but Kenshin could spot others here and there. Kenshin stopped next to the Aiel, and Rand reined in and dismounted. Rhuarc continued studying the stone buildings that made up the stand.   
  
"The goats," Aviendha said. Kenshin thought her voice sounded troubled. "Raiders would not have left any goats behind. Most are gone, but it looks as if the herd has just been allowed to wander."   
  
"For days," Rhuarc said. "Or more would remain. Why does no one come out? They should be able to see my face, and know me." Kenshin nodded in agreement. He had not been here before, had not even been in the world long, but he could feel that something was very wrong here. He said as much.   
  
"Yes," Rhuarc agreed. "But I do not know what." He headed toward the buildings, and didn't object when the others followed him, hands on their respective weapons. They came to a door of rough wood, made of small planks. Part of it's bracing was broken, hacked and smashed by axes. Even though axes weren't commonly used as weaponry in Nihon, Kenshin recognised that the purpose of the axes used here was just that. Rand looked in, and after a moment, he recoiled, a blade of fire appearing in his hand. Kenshin's eyes widened, and a small "oro" popped out of his lips. To be told of the One Power, and to actually see it in use were two completely different things. Aviendha came out as soon as she had gone in.   
  
"Who?" she demanded, her voice and expression full of outrage. "Who would do this? Where are the dead?" Kenshin looked inside, and felt sick to his stomach. He had seen - and done - many horrible things during the Bakumatsu, but rarely had he ever seen such atrocity.   
  
"I know of few who would be capable of even considering such a thing," he said, his face pale.   
  
"Trollocs," Mat muttered. "It looks like Trolloc work to me." Kenshin looked at him.   
  
"Those twisted monsters I was told of?" he asked. Mat nodded.   
  
"Yeah. They'd do this for sure," he said. Aviendha snorted contemptuously.   
  
"Trollocs do not come to the Three-fold Land, wetlander," she said. "No more than a few miles below the Blight, at least, and then seldom. I have heard they call the Three-fold Land the Dying Ground. We hunt Trollocs, wetlander; they do not hunt us." Kenshin found the girl's attitude irritating. She was arrogant, and did not seem to have a single respectful bone in her body, and seemed to think that very nearly anyone not Aiel born and raised was inherently inferior. Rand's glowing sword vanished, and Kenshin again felt the prickle of danger. /What *is* that?/ he wondered.   
  
Rhuarc signaled for his people to come in, and Kenshin observed them rise from their hiding places, and found himself to be impressed with their abilities. They were really as good as any onmitsu. A while later, the rest of the people showed up. Word of what they had found spread quickly, and Kenshin sensed the rising tension among the Aiel. It would have been enough to raise his hackles, had he not already been in a state of heightened alert. Everyone seemed to expect attack at any moment.   
  
Kenshin watched as the Aiel Wise Ones, and the lady Moiraine and Lan examined the room, but he could not read any reaction from them. When Lan came out of the room, Kenshin fell into step beside him. The Warder said nothing.   
  
"Well?" Kenshin prompted. Lan remained silent for a minute more.   
  
"Trollocs," he said shortly. Kenshin nodded.   
  
"Mat was right then," he said. Lan nodded in acknowledgement. Kenshin continued to walk with Lan back to the Wise One's camp. He sighed under his breath. The young swordsman found himself wishing for some tea just then. Or if he were honest with himself, wishing for anything from his home. He had been plucked from his country and world, and set down in a place that was embroiled in a worse war than the Bakumatsu ever was. When they reached the camp, Lan spent some time explaining to him in detail what the various Darkspawn were. He had had a general idea before, but afterwards, with the aid of Lan's detailed explanation, Kenshin knew exactly what a Trolloc was. And a Myrddral, and a Drakhgar... The list went on. During their conversation, Kenshin had come to a very important conclusion: his oath of non-killing did *not* apply to any of these monsters.   
  
A while later, Rand appeared, seeking Lan. To the Wise One's disapproval, he asked Lan to watch him go through the sword forms he had been learning. Kenshin went with them, and was somewhat surprised when he saw Rand using what was, to all appearances, a shinai. Lan noted his suprise, and commented on it.   
  
"That looks much like a type of practice sword we have in Nihon," he said. "We call it a 'shinai'." Lan nodded.   
  
"Interesting," he said. They watched Rand. Kenshin could see that although normally he was skilled in this area, today something seemed amiss. After a while, his arms dropped, and he was panting for breath.   
  
"You lost concentration," Lan said to Rand. "You must hold onto that even when your musclues turn to water. Lose it, and that is the day you die." Kenshin nodded in agreement. His shishou had given him much the same advice, years ago. Although his lesson had hurt a whole lot more. "And it will probably be a farmboy who has his hands on a sword for the first time that does it," Lan added, with a sudden, incongrous smile.   
  
"Yes. Well I'm not a farmboy any longer, am I?" Rand asked the Warder. Kenshin thought he detected a hint of wistfulness in the young man's voice, but he wasn't sure. He had noticed that as Rand had been practicing, they had had gained an audience. There were Aiel from both camps watching them, as well as some of the peddlers. Rand, it seemed noticed them as well. "How do Aiel fight, Lan?" Rand asked.   
  
"Hard," the older man replied dryly. "They never loose concentration. Look here." Kenshin watched as well, as Lan used his sword to draw on the ground. "Aiel change tactics according to circumstances, but here is one they favour." Kenshin listened, and nodded from time to time as Lan detailed some of the tactics of the Aiel. When Rand asked for a way to counter it, Lan explained that as well. Occaisionally, Kenshin interjected with a comment on strategy.   
  
"Why do you want to learn to fight Aiel?" Aviendha interjected. "Are you not He Who Comes With the Dawn, meant to bind us together and return us all to the old glories? Besides, if you want to fight Aiel, ask Aiel, not a wetlander." She paused. "Or a stranger who is not even from this *world*. Their ways will not work." Kenshin gave her a sidelong look that spoke volumes. Her attitude was not improving his veiw of her.   
  
"It has worked well enough with Bordermen from time to time." Rhuarc's approach had gone almost unnoticed by any in the group, so quiet were his footfalls. He carried a waterskin with him, as well as two spears and a pair of bucklers. "Although I have never heard of such tactics as Kenshin has stated." The young man shrugged.   
  
"I have had some experience with warfare," he said. Lan short him a wry look, and he shrugged again. Rhuarc turned back to Aviendha.   
  
"Allowances are always made when someone suffers a disappointment, Aviendha, but there is a limit to sulking," he said. "You gave up the spear for your obligation to the people and the blood. One day no doubt you will be making a clan chief do what you want instead of what he wants, but if instead you are Wise One to the smallest hold of the smallest sept of the Taardad, the obligation remains, and it cannot be met by tantrums." During the speech, Kenshin had listened with interest, and he began to get an inkling of why Aviendha behaved the way she did. While it by no means exonerated her rude behavior, at least said behavior was more understandable. Rhuarc tossed the waterskin to Rand, who caught it, and swallowed the water in great gulps.   
  
"I thought you might like to learn the spear," Rhuarc said, as Rand lowered the half-empty skin. For the first time, it seemed, Rand noticed the weaponry that Rhuarc was carrying. The young man seemed very weary to Kenshin, but he took a spear and buckler anyway.   
  
"That mountain can grow awfully heavy sometimes," he sighed to Lan. "When do you get a chance to put it down for a while?"   
  
"When you die," the Warder replied. Kenshin looked at him askance. "Duty is heavier than a mountain, death lighter than a feather," Lan said to him. The red-haired swordsman nodded, and watched as Rand squared off with Rhuarc.   
  
Later, Kenshin found himself looking at the sky from a clear patch of ground. Rand was still sparring with Rhuarc somewhere behind him, but he wasn't concerned with that now. There was a great deal going on in his mind at that moment, but the thing that weighed most heavily was the thought of his home. He missed it. He missed the mountains, and the rivers, the ocean and the trees. He had never seen anything as desolate as this Three-fold Land. Another thing occurred to him. If the Dark One were to break free, he would be free in all worlds. Did that mean that he would be loose in Kenshin's world as well? He sighed. He was still mourning Tomoe, and now here he was, plunged into a world he knew nothing of, caught up in a conflict that threatened to destroy all worlds... He sighed again, and ran his hands through his hair.   
  
"You seem troubled," came a voice from behind him. He snapped around, and had half drawn his sakabatou, before he realised who had snuck up on him.   
  
"Moiraine-san," he said, nodding to her. He would have to be careful not to get caught up in his thoughts like that again. It could be fatal. "What are you doing out here?" he asked. The place Kenshin had chosen to observe the sky was at some remove from any of the camps about Imre Stand; he had been seeking solitude for his thoughts.   
  
"I wished to speak with you," the Aes Sedai replied. Kenshin nodded. He had expected as much. He waited, giving her a level look. After a while, Moiraine began shifting her feet. Finally she sighed.   
  
"What is the nature of your ability?" she asked finally. That was the thing that most concerned her. That this young man - hardly more than a boy - possessed such strength was unsettling. Kenshin shrugged.   
  
"It is as I told Lan - traning, and nothing more. My abilites are hardly unique where I come from," he continued, thinking of his shishou, and his adversaries among the Shinsengumi - especially the third captian, Saitou Hajime. Moiraine raised an eyebrow.   
  
"Have any of these... super-swordsmen ever gone mad?" she asked. Kenshin gave her a look as if you say 'do you think I'm an idiot?'.   
  
"We're not channelers," he said. "That much I know." Moiraine shot him a quick glare.   
  
"I was not implying that you were," she said cooly.   
  
"Yes," Kenshin said, "you were. I am no fool, Moiraine-san." He sighed, and looked her straight in the eye. "My abilities are the result of training. Years of training, and nothing else, since I was a young child. Yes, I have a natural affinity for this sort of thing - I would not be as skilled as I am otherwise. But that is it." His last sentence had the firmness of finality that brooked no argument. Moiraine found herself to be somewhat taken aback. She had never met anyone - except Rand - who treated her this way. She pressed her lips into a thin line. At least *this* boy was polite. She would find a way to make him useful, though, however he acted. His eyes were turned back to the sky, watching as the sun sank below the horizon.   
  
"It is getting dark, Moiraine-san. I expect dinner will be ready soon. Goodnight." Kenshin bowed slightly, and then headed back to the camp. Moiraine watched his retreating form, and with no small sense of frustration headed back to the camp of the Wise Ones. The strange young man from another world made her uneasy. The situation was falling farther and farther out of her control, and it seemed like there was very little that she could do about it.   
  
"Don't worry about him," Lan advised when she mentioned the subject. "He's a good person, and will do what needs to be done." Moiraine sighed internally, and ate her dinner.   
  
Back in the other camp, Kenshin was eating dinner with Rand and several other of his new companions. The traders were there, and Kenshin was keeping a surreptious eye on them. This was the first time he had seen them up close, and there was something about them that raised a number of alarms in his head. Especially the large woman - Keille - and the minstrel - gleeman, he corrected himself - called Jasin Natael. There was something about them that was just not... right. He had caught himself unconsciously fingering the hilt of his sakabatou several times already now. /If I were still the Hitokiri, they would be dead/ he thought. He kept his suspicions to himself for the moment, but made a note to speak to Rand about them as soon as the opportunity presented itself. They ate dinner with little conversation. The food was unfamiliar to Kenshin, and some of it was very spicy - so much so that he turned red and started choking when he tried it.   
  
"Ororooooo!" he wailed in distress, clutching his throat and waving his hand at his mouth. "Oro! Oro! Oro! WATER!" he finally managed to shout. The traders were looking at him bemusedly, and several of the Aiel were laughing, but Rhuarc handed him a water skin, and Kenshin quickly gulped down more than half the contents. "Ahhhhh," he sighed. The red-haired swordsman shot his companions a hurt look. "You didn't have to laugh," he said in an injured tone. The Aiel clan-chief chuckled again, and apologised. After they had all finished eating - with, Kenshin thought thankfully, no further culinary surprises - Rhuarc and another Aiel named Heirn pulled out pipes, and stuffed them with tobacco.   
  
"Would you sing a song for us, Natael?" Rhuarc asked. Natael blinked, as if surprised by the request.   
  
"Why, of course. Of course," he repeated. The way he said this once again raised Kenshin hackles. Something was definitely not right here. The man was hiding something. "Let me bring a harp," Natael continued, heading off toward one of the traders' wagons. As he left, Mat too brought out a pipe and filled it with tobacco. By the time Natael had returned with his harp, there were three contentedly smoking men around the fire. The gleeman struck a pose, and began singing. It was a song of battles, and honour, that Kenshin found moving.   
  
/Whetever else he may be, he is a masterful performer,/ the red-head thought. When the man had finished singing, Rand was staring into the fire with a slight twist to his lips. Mat also looked distracted. Nateal was looking at Rand.   
  
"You did not like the song?" he asked. Rand rubbed his hands together.   
  
"I'm not certain how wise it is, depending on an enemy's generosity. What do you think, Kadere?" he asked the trader. Kadere hesitated, glancing nervously at the woman - Isendre - who was clinging to him.   
  
"I do not think of such things. I think of profits, not battles," he said. Keille laughed. The woman who had attached herself to Kadere gave Keille a condescending smile. Instantly, the large woman's eyes became hard, glittering dangerously, and Kenshin had to fight to keep himself from drawing his sakabatou. He had to break that habit; he had a long way to go from being the Hitokiri.   
  
/But in this situation, maybe I don't want to give up all those habits/ he thought. Suddenly, the prickling feeling that had always warned him of danger skittered across his senses. At the same moment, shouts of alarm and cries of warning came from beyond the tents. Kenshin fell into a ready stance, his hands hovering over his sakabatou, and his eyes darting about, and muscles ready to spring into action, wherever the attack came from. The Aiel had pulled veils over their faces, and a second later, swarms of hideously misformed creatures came in from the darkness. They were all at least twice the size of a large man, which made them perhaps five times Kenshin's size. Not for the first time, he wished he were just a *little* taller. They had faces mangled by the presence of snouts and beaks, and horns grew out of their heads. Their hands were clawed, and as often as not, they had hooves instead of feet.   
  
The hideous appearance of what could only be Trollocs caused Kenshin to recoil internally for a moment, but before the monsters could take any action, he launched into a lightning speed attack. He had taken out several of them, when he caught his first sight of what had to be a Myrddral.   
  
The creature had the basic form of a slender man, clad in serpentine black armour, but that was where the resemblace ended. The Myrddral had white skin - absolute dead white skin, with lank black hair. And where a man would have eyes, the Myrddral had nothing. Then, as if sensing his gaze, the Myrddral turned to face him. 'To know the gaze of the Eyeless is to know fear', Lan had told him. And indeed, for a second he did feel an almost crippling terror. However, he quickly shrugged it off. It was no worse than what he had experienced from users of the Shin no Ippou during the Bakumatsu.   
  
With a powerful kiai, he dashed at the Myrddral, dodging to the side of it's attack quicker than the creature could follow. The Myrddral slashed at his midsection, but with a sinuous twist, Kenshin avoided the blow. In one corner of his mind, he was aware of the Aiel fighting around him, and of Mat weilding his naginata with deadly accuracy. In the other, he was anticipating the moves of his enemy. The skills he had developed over the years he spent fighting in the Bakumatsu helped him to accurately gauge the ability of nearly anyone he was fighting.   
  
The Myrddral aimed another attack at his stomach, and this time instead of merely dodging, Kenshin leaped into the air, reversing his sakabatou as he did so. As he came down, he brought the sakabatou down on the Myrddral, cleaving it in half from it's head all the way down. The red-haired swordsman landed in a crouch, which was a good thing, as it prevented his decapitation by the Myrddral's flailing death throes.   
  
Without pausing for breath, Kenshin leaped back into the battle. Deftly he avoided blows from Trollocs and Myrddral, while at the same time managing to deliver many of his own. However, he did have a few close calls - once when a Myrddral's black blade skimmed across his chest, and left a faint scratch, and again when several Trollocs attacked him at once, leaving a narrow cut on his left arm.   
  
At one point, he found himself fighting back to back with Rand, who was fighting off the monsters with his sword of fire. Together they managed to withstand the onslaught of nearly twenty Trollocs at once, although Kenshin felt some surprise again when Rand incinerated five of them in a great pillar of fire. Then he was on his own again, dodging and attacking, using natural rock formations at ricochet points to add force to his attacks. At one point there were several Trollocs in a line near him, and he opened the ground under them with a Dou Ryu Sen.   
  
Then it was over. The Trollocs and Myrddral lay on the ground, dead or dying. With a sense of horror, Kenshin realised that the Myrddal were still thrashing.   
  
"The Halfmen never fully die until the sun rises," an Aiel whom he did not recognise said to him, before moving off. Kenshin shuddered. /What kind of... twisted monster could have possibly created these things?/ He shuddered again. He spotted Rand, Mat and Aviendha, and headed over to them.   
  
"...all right?" he heared Rand asking Mat. Mat struggled to his feet.   
  
"Oh, I am fine," he muttered. "Nothing like a little dance with Trollocs to ready you for sleep. Right Aviendha?" The Aiel woman smiled tightly. Then Mat noticed Kenshin apporaching. His eyes widened, and he took a step back, half falling into a defensive posture. He spat out curse in an unrecognisable language. "I thought you said you couldn't channel," he said accusatively to Kenshin.   
  
"I can't," Kenshin replied. Mat snorted.   
  
"I saw you blast the ground out from under those Trollocs," he said accusitorily. Kenshin began to reply, but stopped when Rand shook his head.   
  
"He wasn't channeling." Rand gave Kenshin a hard look. "Whatever he was doing, it wasn't channeling." Mat swallowed at this tacit reminder that one of his best and oldest friends could channel, and was doomed, like all men with that ability, to madness and death. A tense silence fell upon them, when Rhuarc strode up, his face grim. An almost palpable wave of relief spread across them, as the clan chief's approach broke the tension that hed been hovering over them like some dark spell. Rand cleared his throat.  
  
"Bad news?" he asked Rhuarc.   
  
"Hn. Aside from Trollocs here where they should not be, not by two hundred leauges or more?" the clan-chief replied. "Perhaps. Some fifty Trollocs attacked the Wise Ones' camp. Enough to overwhelm it, had it not been for Moiraine Sedai and luck."   
  
/Luck.../ Kenshin thought as Rhuarc continued, telling of the much smaller attack on the Shaido. Kenshin looked at Rand. /Luck.../ he mused again. /I'm beginning to wonder if there's any such thing./   
  
"I bring enemies with me, Rhuarc," Rand was saying. "Remember that. Wherever I am, my enemies are never far." Kenshin felt a slight chill at those words. He had a great deal of sympathy for Rand; the young man had been plunged unwillingly into a role that would in all likelyhood bring him to an early grave. Although Kenshin had been in a similar situation during the Bakumatsu, he at least had gone in willingly, with open eyes. Suddenly he felt a burning pain across his chest.   
  
"Ah!" he gasped. It was coming from the wound that the Myrddral had given him. /But it was only a scratch!/ He clenched his teeth. Rand looked sharply at him.   
  
"What is it?" he asked, glancing around. He had noticed Kenshin's ability to sense danger before, and was wondering if the gasp was a reaction to something like that.   
  
"My... chest," Kenshin said through his teeth. Rhuarc stepped up to him, and pushed his kimono open. The clan-chief hissed. Kenshin looked down. What had been a shallow scratch was now a livid wound, that was getting visibly worse.   
  
"What gave you this wound?" Rhuarc asked. Kenshin told him about the Myrddral. Rhuarc's face turned grim. "It must be treated a soon as possible. Why did you say nothing sooner?"   
  
"It was... only a scratch," Kenshin gasped out, as he fell to his knees, doubled over with pain. "I have had worse from my shishou in practice." Mat looked at him grimly.   
  
"A wound from a Fadeblade is never 'just a scratch,'" he said. Rand nodded, and looked around. Where was Moiraine? He himself had no skill with healing, so they needed to find the Aes Sedai if Kenshin were to survive. He spotted her, with Egwene some fifty feet away tending to some of the wounded.   
  
"Moiraine!" he called, and gestured her to come, quickly. Egwene shot him a look of swiftly concealed irritation, and followed Moiraine as she glided swiftly across the parched earth to Rand.   
  
"What is it?" the Aes Sedai asked. Rand nodded to Kenshin, who by this time was fighting for consciousness.   
  
"He was cut by a Fadeblade," Rand said. Moiraine felt a tinge of surprise, but showed no reaction on the surface as she knelt to examine the young swordsman. /He must truly be made of strong stuff if he is still conscious and functioning after a cut from a Myrddral in that area of his body./ Fortunately, Kenshin was even less affected than she had feared; much of his reaction was due to excruciating pain. Swiftly, she cleansed the wound, and healed it shut.   
  
"There," she said. Kenshin thanked her. She nodded, and then turned to Rand. With a slight frown, he allowed her to examine him, but he was not injured. Mat had left when Rand had called the Aes Sedai, saying he was going to bed, and muttering about the peddlers.   
  
"This was aimed at you," Moiraine said to Rand. A few more words were exchanged, also between Rand and Egwene, but Kenshin was not paying any real attention to them. The whole of his attention was taken by one of the thrashing Myrddral. Apparently, although the Trollocs were being dragged off for disposal, the Myrddral were being left until sunrise, to ensure that they were truly dead. He shuddered. The things were like the worst demon creatures out of a nightmare. He stood there as if hypnotised for how long he didn't knwo, until one of the Aiel Wise Ones touched him gently on the shoulder and told him that he should sleep. With a sigh, he nodded, and with one last shuddering glance at the still-thrashing Myrddral, went to seek his tent. 


End file.
